Anne Morrell

It is said that artworks often mean more than one thing and certainly more than the artist knows—that artist’s work is between meanings and reason. I use stitch as mark/language to capture closely observed moments in nature—light, time, and seasons—same/similar marks in various locations. In part perhaps a symbolic language through which I try to express my ideas.

I like my work to be taut and stretched, but not exclusively, which often means that I use cloth as a means to an end, not a textile that I am embellishing or adding to. The cloth becomes mine to change and do with as I will. I like being unconventional, defying the rules that were taught in needlework at school, which resulted in my ‘bad’ sewing which puckers up the fabric. I like using techniques that I know will do what was considered ‘wrong.’ I like secrets such as the use of the pattern that is an early symbol for water: putting that across a work hides a possible title to the work. The person viewing the work sees a …. line, pattern, and I see graffiti. I hope I mix, join and connect with work that can be still, be a noise, and sometimes unsettling.

It is perhaps the way I have progressed through making, from a very free interpretation of what is textiles/ collage/ stitch to hand stitch, in what might be seen as a retrograde direction. But through challenging the subject and oneself it is a journey like any other, where ideas move and develop and change, and one becomes more confident. As in any other discipline, one learns as one goes along. I love to learn and to challenge through my stitch.